Snickers: The Worst Diabetes Joke

I like a good joke. I can even take a good joke about myself. And I know that I’ve laughed at inappropriate jokes. I know most of us have. But we need to talk about what’s at the root of some types of our humor.

Even comedians have started to admit that there are realms of humor that should be handled differently. Not off limits, per se, but with the subject of the punchline in mind. Patton Oswalt wrote last summer about his complete 180° in understanding why he was wrong about rape jokes. Not that rape had some pristine status of “off limits” in terms of topics that absolutely could not be joked about, but this quote of his stuck with me:

In fact, every viewpoint I’ve read on this, especially from feminists, is simply asking to kick upward, to think twice about who is the target of the punchline, and make sure it isn’t the victim.

Today, for your consideration, Internet, I bring you: The Diabetes Joke. Many of us have seen this meme. Something along the lines of a math word problem involving candy bars or cupcakes or some other decadent dessert.

Bob has 50 candy bars. He eats 45. What does he have now?

Diabetes. Bob has diabetes.

It’s hilarious because… Well, because we as a culture are okay with fat shaming, for one. And only fat people get diabetes. They bring it on themselves so they deserve to suffer the butt of the joke. HA. If they’d just shown a little willpower and resisted that kind of food over the course of their lives, they wouldn’t have diabetes. It’s okay to laugh at their lack of willpower! Laugh with me!

Whether the joke is about someone losing a foot, eating so much / drinking a soda so large that it’s diabetes-on-a-plate / diabetes-in-a-cup, or feeling stuffed after a meal and giving yourself diabetes, we get it. You’re equatingindulgence with an extreme consequence. And it’s a little absurd, so it gets a chuckle.

And whom does that hurt? Can’t we just take a joke?

Just like a rape joke, a joke about an illness – any illness – places someone struggling with a life-altering, soul-crushing, debilitating experience as the punchline of a joke. I have struggled with diabetes every day for the last twenty-three years. I’ve been comatose. My parents nearly lost me at diagnosis. I’ve had hypoglycemia and not known where I was. I’ve been afraid I wouldn’t wake up to be there the next morning for my two children. And I’ve campaigned for children in the developing world for whom a diagnosis of diabetes is a death sentence.

So diabetes, in general, is not incredibly funny to me.

That being said, there are still plenty of ways I can laugh about diabetes and the situations we struggle with. I follow the work of several talented diabetic comedians. I enjoy the comics my DOC friends publish in the Sunday Funnies. I share hilarious videos. Do you know where I have to draw a line though?

The line where it’s funny because we deserve this struggle.

Now, this is where you’ll argue, likely, that it’s different because of course the OP is talking about type “TWO” diabetes. Not the kind I have.

Stop gaslighting me. Stop telling me that it’s just a joke and I’m overreacting. You didn’t mean my illness. You meant the other guy’s illness. The fat guy’s illness.

That’s like telling a family fighting cancer that “It was a joke about cervicalcancer, not childhood cancer. Jeez, grow a thicker skin, people.”

First of all, Type 2 diabetes is not any easier than what I have, so the punchline victim is someone who is fighting an equally hard battle. In some ways, their challenges are even greater than mine. But you know what? Whatever version of a disease a person has, it’s a struggle for that person who is sick. The person in the center ring. The person who is afraid, who is bombarded by media blaming them for having given themselves this disease. The person whose well-meaning GP and Dr-Oz-loving-Readers-Digest-reading family probably tells them that it can be “reversed” if they just start toeing the line, shaming them if and when they fail.

Type 2 Diabetes is a life-threatening, serious, progressive metabolic illness. It can’t be “reversed.” It can be well-controlled to the point that symptoms lessen – and if you want to call that a cure, that’s your prerogative – but you can also be recovered from addiction for years, too, and easily slip back into the danger zone. Type 2 puts wear and tear on your body and, though you might mitigate some damage, you won’t “beat” it. No matter what that checkout line tabloid headline promises you.

We even hear this diabetes victim shaming from people with my version of the disease who make sure you understand that, in our case, you see, we’re blameless. My child didn’t give themselves diabetes. Implying, of course, that there is a type of diabetes you can bring upon yourself.

It’s a fat person’s disease, so you believe. Nevermind that only roughly half of people with Type 2 are obese and those who do carry extra weight actually seem to have protection from the killer instincts of type 2. Less likely to die than the 20% of normal- or under-weight counterparts with the same disease (it’s called the obesity paradox). (If you haven’t watched surgeon Peter Attia’s TED talk about this, go now. You’ll probably cry. I’ll wait.) But Type 2 is not really my specific area of expertise, so I’ll move on to a related point:

We are totally cool shaming fat people. They are still a very safe target for our societal scorn and derision. They’re our comic sidekicks – the jolly fatty – and we all know they (all of them, right?) uncomfortably joke about their own weight, so surely it’s fair game for us, too. “Hey, I have fat friends and they think it’s funny when I joke about it.” That’s like “I have a black friend, so I couldn’t possibly say something racist.”

And we’re doing fat people a favor when we “motivate” them to conform to our definition of healthy, right? Because you can tell how healthy a person is just by their weight or their diet? This wonderful post on xojane titled “What’s Wrong with Fat Shaming?” reminds us that “shame is not a catalyst for change; it is a paralytic.” If I have type 2 diabetes and/or struggle with obesity, your joke about me eating candy bars and getting a disease doesn’t motivate anything in me but self-hatred.

So maybe I just can’t take a joke. Maybe I actually know people who have died from diabetes. Who have suffered at its hands. Whose family believed it their own fault. They deserved to die.

We do it to other diseases, too. The shame diseases. Lung cancer. AIDS. When you say you lost your Nana to lung cancer, people say “Oh, did she smoke?” Yes, she did. So she must have deserved to die. She must have been less deserving of our compassion, our pity. My grief must be dampened by that. That blame. Whew. That feels better. I’d hate to think she didn’t kick herself enough in her final month of struggle.

Maybe your stepdad doesn’t “take care” of his diabetes (that he lets you see). Maybe he doesn’t tell you how scared he really is. Maybe your mother had a plate of strawberry shortcake for dinner and then again for breakfast. Maybe there’s a lot she doesn’t understand about her disease because access to proper behavioral education isn’t available to her. Maybe she is also scared and frustrated. Maybe she’s exhausted by this damned disease.

And maybe diabetes is frightening and headed for you, too (1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with it), so if you make light of it, if you joke about food comas and candy-bar-induced disease, it feels less scary.

But the joke’s on you. And you may find someday that it’s not actually all that funny.

Melissa Lee has lived with type 1 since the age of 10. She is known in the diabetes online community for her blog Sweetly Voiced and for her work with the Diabetes Hands Foundation. She served for three years as the lead administrator of DHF's online community TuDiabetes and currently serves on the DHF Board of Directors and on the steering committee of their Diabetes Advocates program. In her other life, she is a private voice lessons instructor and professional singer. After two successful pregnancies with diabetes, her days are currently spent as a homemaker running after her children, ages 4 and 2.

Stacey Bentz

Not condoning the joke, but this is one more example of why there needs too be a name change for T1D.

Michael

This is not a different “version” of the disease. They are, in fact, different diseases and should not share a name. As someone with both type 1 and type 2, I also will add that type 2 IS easier to deal with. The only thing more difficult than type 1 is having double diabetes (type 1 and 2, as in my case).

By the way, if you think I can’t have both, then you obviously don’t know enough about type 2 to write this article. I completely agree with you regarding fat shaming, though.

JD

Did you really just say that Type 2 is easier to deal with? I understand that you have “both” versions but the treatment is identical so having both is irrelevant. I have 2 close friends that are type 1, my best friend is type 2 and I am type 2 and they all tell me that they are glad that they don’t have the same issues that I do. Whatever version you are living with, everyone reacts to the treatment differently. My type 2 friend is blind and has had a kidney transplant, he was diagnosed when he was 18. Both of my type 1 friends wear pumps and have perfected their insulin administration for each meal and snack. I take 5 – 7 needles a day and I am still averaging 20 mmol/l. I have an impaired pancreas and I am insulin resistant and it rarely drops my BS so I need to exercise daily. I have really bad circulation and I go to bed and wake up in burning pain every day. I sleep with wrist braces because I work in computers and have severe carpal tunnel syndrome. I had 20/20 vision until a couple of years ago, now I wear glasses to read and to see my computer screen. I sweat in public and at my office like a drug addict and I almost faint when my BS goes below 10 because it is rarely that low and I am not used to it. I know type 1 diabetics suffer from the same and in some cases worse things, but to say that type 2 is easier is just plain ignorant and you need to read up on type 2 and what it really is. I was a body builder and when I stopped training, those cells became dangerous fat cells that make it hard for my body to use insulin whether it is produced by my pancreas or I inject it. I lost 45 pounds and my BS was getting worse as my disease progressed. Type 2 has less to do with being fat and more to do with the type of fat you are carrying. I was diagnosed less than 5 years ago, I went from 1 pill a day to Basal and Bolus insulin therapy in about 6 months. My aunt passed away from scleroderma, she was also a type 2 diabetic as was my grandfather. I have been diagnosed with hemochromatosis which can lead to diabetes where it will either shut down your pancreas or severely impair its function. There are other ways to become a diabetic besides being born with it or being over weight. I love this article and I hope that all type 1 diabetics that shame type 2 diabetics get the point the author is trying to make. I for one am sick of hearing people talk about fat type 2 diabetics and how they think it is curable when they have no idea what causes it in the first place. People who are overweight and suffer from some sort of glucose management issue are not diabetics, but they do benefit from the research already done and in some cases these people do become symptom free after losing weight and/or changing their diet. I have been afflicted with iron overload that has damaged my pancreas and impaired my ability to correctly use insulin. If everyone with type 1 diabetes wants them to call that something else besides type 2 diabetes because it is somehow slowing the research for a cure or lessening a scientists chance of finding new treatments I’m all for that. To say that you want them to change the name because you think that people like me are lazy and brought this disease on myself is just ridiculous and makes me wonder who the people are that actually deserve better treatments or a cure.

T14life

I have Type 1 and I think who cares. Seems like your scratching around for topics to write about. People laugh at jokes, end of story.

Ginger Vieira

We’re never in a shortage of topics to write about Melissa wrote about this particular cartoon because it actually caused quite a ruckus in the greater diabetes online community outside of just DiabetesDaily.com. She’s expressing a view point on something many folks felt offended by, and not only does she have the right to write about it, we appreciate her thoughtful piece, too!

Thank you for reading!

Richard S.

CAUTION–Bad diabetic joke ahead: A person who was concerned with being diabetic decided to eat foods with non-sugar artificial sweeteners. Shortly thereafter that person developed artificial diabetes.

Lori

If your sugar spikes too high. Get yourself a big bag of sunflower seeds at Walmart, that’s where I got mine. If you can chew them up good, then chew about an ounce or two. I love them so I eat about 5 to 8 tablespoons of them. I can’t chew them anymore because I don’t have but one back bottom tooth. I have a blender a Ninja and I chop them up to almost powder to keep them for sugar spikes, and it brings my sugar down to two digits. I do not eat meat or drink cows milk though. Once in a while if I run out of my almond or coconut milk I will use the cows milk. I eat cereal and oatmeal, veggies and rarely a little fish. I would like to know if the sunflower seeds works for anyone else. I have type 2 diabetes and my sugar stayed higher than I liked but now when I eat the seeds, it goes down quite a lot. Losing weight help type 2 and avoiding animal products as much as you can. I eat cheese sometimes, the hard cheese. Cream cheese once in a while. A little butter on whole wheat bread. You can eat how you want, no one can change but you and I am not telling anyone what to eat. My sugar was high at times. I just wanted to say try the seeds and see if they help. Ones without salt are best. But I eat the ones with salt.

Karen

It appears to me that some readers have misunderstood the two “voices” in this article. The writer alternates between her own voice and that of the people telling these jokes. She is portraying why each voice behaves or reacts in the way they do–why the diabetic (regardless of which Type) is offended and why the person telling the joke (wrongly) feels justified in telling it in the first place.

For example… Writer’s voice: “First of all, Type 2 diabetes is not any easier than what I have…” (I agree!) Comedian’s voice: “It’s a fat person’s disease, so you believe.” (key words: so you believe)

The writer’s overall point has nothing to do with Type 1 vs. Type 2. Her point is that people who tell such jokes have no business doing so since they clearly don’t understand either one of these diseases and, as a result, “cross the line” of insensitivity.

jerseygurl

I think one of the big reasons people feel very FREE to “Fat Shame” is because it is almost the last bastion of accepted shames they CAN use and get away with it. Not saying it;s right–just that this is the way it is.

No one can joke (and rightly so) about race; religion; sexual orientation; –well unless you are black; gay; or a member of the specific religion being joked about. Or unless you are Russel Peters in which case the gloves and all bets are off and you will pee yourself laughing (Youtube is your friend)

And the implication is ALWAYS that YOU BROUGHT THE FAT ON YOURSELVES. No matter what. Need steroids for a disease? Looking a little chubby because of that? You are now FAT and therefore incapable of feeling pain or fighting back when people make assumptions and comments about your body. If they were saying something about your booty—you could fight back. The size of your body? Actually not so much. How weird IS this???

I lost a lower leg due in part to MD malpractice—from the very first ER doc who insisted he didn’t have to x-ray that broken leg right up to the guy who told me go home sit down and wait to die you will never walk again. And EVERY lawyer I spoke to told me I had an EXCELLENT CASE—right up until I WALKED into their offices and they discovered I did not weight 79 pounds and look like Kate Moss. Do I think that this had a HUGE influence on the fact that I was not able to bring a lawsuit to fruition? Why thanks for asking yes yes I do indeed. No one was brave enough to SAY this but it was the elephant in the room—someone who is over weight (even tho this had NOTHING to do with WHY I needed to sue!!!)—must have CAUSED this and it MUST be their fault and no judge or jury would EVER be able to see PAST this and make a proper judgement on the MERITS of the case. Almost makes you want to be in one room unseen by the court and do oral testimony and SEE if this would make a difference.

Does this need to CHANGE? Yes and SOON—all we keep hearing about is how the “Obesity Epidemic” is taking over the world–what happens when the balance swings towards larger people being the NORM?

Well I guess we could just sit on them skinny people.

RIP John Pinnette–who was the Patron Saint of the Overweight—Now checking out the Heavenly Buffet Line. He made a fortune out of joking about HIS being fat–but never OTHERS.